Tag Archives: drugs

Here’s a story that should make your head spin: Officials at an elementary school in N.J. say the best way to ensure young children steer clear of drugs is to make them afraid of being randomly drug tested:

A proposal to conduct random drug tests of young students in one New Jersey town is raising some eyebrows.

Students at Belvidere Elementary School could be adding drug testing to their list of lessons when they move into middle school.

The Board of Education will vote Wednesday on a plan to randomly test sixth, seventh and eighth graders to see if they are under the influence of drugs. School administrators said they were confident the proposal would pass.

Elementary School Principal Sandra Szabocsik said school officials want to use the testing “as a deterrent.”

“We’re hoping that the students if they’re at say a party or someone’s house or just hanging out somewhere, that they’ll say ‘I don’t want to get involved in drinking or using any drug because tomorrow could be a drug testing day,'” she told CBS 2′s Christine Sloan.

The program is voluntary and both parents and students must consent. School officials said it was important to note that if a student tested positive, they would not be suspended or have the results sent to the police.

Instead, those students would get counseling or even be referred to a rehab facility …

Anyone else think it’s odd that The Huffington Post finds humor in a comedian’s rant against government intrusion in citizens’ lives? In and of itself, that’s funny enough, but watch Lewis Black systematically dismantle the nanny state with his sarcasm and wit if your pants are still dry.

It's all fun and games for Multonmah County police officers until they can go back to putting criminals behind bars.

If you’re an unrepentant drug addict who enjoys shoplifting and hit-and-run accidents, then be sure to visit Multnomah County in Oregon for your next adventure, RawStory.com reports:

The district attorney in Multnomah County, the state’s most populous area with over 710,000 residents, announced recently that it can no longer prosecute dozens of crimes thanks to an ever-shrinking budget.

Caught with small amounts of heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine? It’s a ticket. So’s a hit-and-run accident. Small-time shoplifting? You’ll still get arrested, but it’s still just a violation.

For these and other lesser crimes, the district attorney will simply refuse to prosecute …

In spite of the budgetary rue, Multnomah County is one of only a few in the nation that is piloting a program that affixes GPS tracking bracelets to youths convicted of gang-related crimes: a practice widely criticized by civil rights groups.

What, no Stimulus funds to protect citizens and their families against criminals? Law-abiding taxpayers should be irate over this gross misuse of their money that has left them and their families vulnerable to criminals who would otherwise be behind bars.

A dozen children pretending to drink alcohol were suspended from Wake Forest Rolesville Middle School school in Raleigh, N.C., despite school officials not falling for the awkward joke. Once it was determined that the fake booze was just soda, the kids were disciplined as if they had brought hard alcohol to school.

One parent told the local ABC News affiliate that his daughter received a “10-day suspension and was told to attend a drug program that costs $450.” That’s the standard punishment given to kids caught violating the Wake County Schools’ “Narcotics, Alcoholic Beverages, Controlled Substances, Chemical and Drug Paraphernalia” policy.

No student shall possess, use, distribute, sell, possess with intent to distribute or sell, or conspire or attempt to distribute or sell, or be under the influence of any narcotic drug, hallucinogenic drug, amphetamine, barbiturate, marijuana, anabolic steroid, other controlled substance, any alcoholic beverage, malt beverage, fortified wine, other intoxicating liquor, drug paraphernalia, counterfeit substance, any unauthorized prescription drug, or any other chemicals or products with the intention of bringing about a state of exhilaration, euphoria, or of otherwise altering the student’s mood or behavior.

School officials declined to comment to ABC News on the case, but even if the kids were charged with possessing “counterfeit” alcohol, the soda in their bottles could in no way — intentionally or unintentionally — brought about “a state of exhilaration, euphoria, or of otherwise altering the student’s mood or behavior.”

Punish the kids for playing a bad joke about a serious matter on their teachers, but pretending they’re drug addicts, suspending them for 10 days, and sending them to rehab seems a bit much. What are your thoughts?

If you can read and write in 'Ebonics,' you might qualify for a plush federal job.

Your hard-earned tax dollars could soon end-up paying the salaries of ‘Ebonics’ translators hired by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to support their evolving efforts in the War on Drugs.

Nine translators who speak fluent Ebonics are currently being sought by the DEA for the purpose of helping confused agents interpret street slang picked-up on wiretaps.

“DEA’s position is, it’s a language form we have a need for,” Special Agent Michael Sanders told reporters last week. “I think it’s a language form that DEA recognizes a need to have someone versed in to conduct investigations.”

According to Sanders, it’s not just black criminals who speak Ebonics. Whites and Latinos, he says, intentionally speak in Ebonics to throw-off any potential law enforcement officials listening-in on their conversations, so this initiative is perfectly justified in his eyes … and ethical, too.

Sanders was not able to provide reporters with the cost to hire, train and pay the DEA’s 9 new Ebonics translators.

Do you support or oppose the DEA’s efforts to recruit and employ Ebonics translators?

"I don't have time to go to the doctor to get a prescription for cough medicine. Do you?"

Thanks to a bunch of idiotic teenagers who chug copious amounts of cough medicine to get high, the FDA is considering new restrictions on Robitussin, NyQuil and more than 100 other over-the-counter (OTC) cough suppressants. If you’re one of the millions of responsible adults who seek convenient cough relief in a bottle, a doctor’s prescription might be required this coming cold and flu season.

Dextromethorphan, an ingredient found in OTC cough medicines is popular among teenagers seeking to get high without purchasing illegal drugs. Apparently, every year there are a few thousand young dopes who wind-up in the hospital after they’ve consumed 25 times the recommended dose of cough syrup, so it’s looking like you’re going to start paying for their stupidity.

Whether it’s requiring a prescription from a doctor or showing your driver’s license to the pharmacist — all so you can purchase otherwise harmless cough medicine legally — the FDA believes it’s best to treat everyone, including grandma, as potential drug abusers.

“On Sept. 14, the FDA will ask a panel of outside experts whether dextromethorphan should be available only as a prescription,” The Associated Press reports. “The agency is not required to follow the group’s advice, though it often does.”

Tired of big government treating you like an irresponsible child incapable of making your own decisions and acting without clenching its helping hand? Join the Nanny State Liberation Front on Facebook and fight to restore your freedom and independence before it’s too late.

Vending machines of the future will sell candy, soda and various forms of junk food all with the scan of your thumb or eyeball. According to MyFoxNY.com, the biometric scans will be linked to customers’ credit cards, but who knows what how that sensitive information will be used in an era when the nanny state is increasingly trying to control what Americans eat and drink.

Currently, American citizens with sniffles and allergies seeking to purchase remedies containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient for making methamphetamine, must sign paperwork at the pharmacy checkout counter that can be summoned by law enforcement officials if they suspect you’re purchasing a suspicious amount of drugs like Claritin-D, Alevert-D, and Zyrtec-D, for example. Flash-forward to the future of America’s crackdown on obesity and chubby Americans seeking a candy bar, can of soda or bag of chips might be denied on the spot or put on a government watch list.

Well, that’s some heavy tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff, but do you really think it’s necessary for vending machines to grab your most private personal data all for the purpose of selling you some cheap snacks and drinks? More importantly, do you trust vending machine companies to utilize the most secure data storage systems to keep your identity and biometric information safe?